4 Love Lessons You Learned In Elementary School

Along with sharing your toys and turning off the lights if you’re at the end of the line, lessons that we learn in elementary school are often life lessons that we take with us when we are searching for “the one” twenty years later. Sounds bizarre, right? But take a second and think back to what your mom and teachers always told you:

-Don’t be mean to him just because he has “cooties”: Okay, so maybe that quiet boy at the corner of the table wasn’t exactly the outgoing class clown that sat next to you. But just as your mom always reminded you, don’t exclude others for no reason. Nowadays, it’s often the case that the loudmouth at the bar that’s coming onto you hard actually turns out to be a complete moron and the chill co-worker next to him is the golden one.

-Don’t only hang out with girls: Even though “boys go to Jupiter to get more stupid-er and girls to go Mars to become rock stars,” doesn’t mean that you should only hang out with girls all the time. When your mom forced you to invite everyone in your class to your birthday party (even though there would be boys there!!!), she was just trying to train you to get along with both genders. Jupiter could actually be pretty fun and could provide a pretty good break from all the glam of Mars. Today, I don’t know where I would be without my guy friends and I know that I would definitely go crazy if I only knew how to socialize with girls!

-Don’t be TOO mean to the boys: Okay, so maybe you used to get your kicks out of being in the castle of the playground with all of the little girls and making faces at and teasing the boys down below. Your teacher would remind you that it’s important to play with everyone, but it was so much more fun ragging on the boys with your fellow ladies! This idea is parallel to playing hard to get in today’s world. While it can be entertaining to make a guy chase you for a little while, they might lose interest and you could be the one alone in the end.

-Don’t let the boys be mean to you either: Most importantly, we were taught to have respect for ourselves when we were younger. If that boy decides to tease you at recess, just ignore him and realize that you’re better than that (plus, chances are that he probably has a crush on you). Instead of fighting back and getting into trouble, remind yourself that he’s wrong and just being a huge jerk. Similarly, when your stupid idiot ex boyfriend decides to cheat on you, your mom will tell you to take the high road and move on. Rather than mean tweeting him or leaving angry voice mails, just ignore him and pretend that it doesn’t bother you. The less affected you are by them, the less exciting it is for them to be mean to you.

So what do you say? Let’s not throw all of that elementary school education out the window! What else have you learned early on in your life that helped you manage later?